Son of the USB 2.0 Hi-speed Flash drive roundup (2005)

USB flash drives have become more common and less expensive since our original …

Introduction

Some people call it a pen drive or a jump drive. Others call it a thumb drive, a keychain drive, or even a memory stick, but we just call it a USB Flash drive (UFD). We speculated in our Flash drive review last year that these units might replace the floppy, the Zip disk and the CD-RW. Well, the floppy still manages to stick around and the CD-R is not going to disappear anytime soon. But what has changed since last year is a massive adoption of USB Flash drives by the average Joe and Jane. Previously, most people had no idea what a Flash drive was, but now you can be sure to find most people with even a basic Flash drive in their pocket or purse.

Since last year, the USB Flash drive market has changed a bit. Many manufacturers have updated their product line with faster Flash memory and controllers. Flash memory prices have dropped and memory densities have risen making the average drive size much larger. Many manufacturers have included special software to make Flash drives easier and more useful. With all these factors, it can be awfully difficult to decide which is best for you just by looking at the drive and the packaging. It would be easy to make an assumption that all drives are pretty much the same and that shopping for the best price is the smartest way of deciding. Even if the manufacturer publishes performance specifications on their product, how can you be sure that it actually performs up to their numbers?